BRITAIN BEGINS TO RE-MAKE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1934, Page 25

BRITAIN BEGINS TO RE-MAKE

WHOLE TOWNS

Goaded by public opinion the Government "is at last taking steps to try to solve the terrible problem of our derelict industrial areas, says the "Children's Newspaper." Investigators have been, appointed whose task is to suggest what measures should bo taken to remedy the evil in each district.

There are at least four areas, in this island where the. term derelict applies, a word which implies much more than distressed. For. the distressed area may be said to be but passing through a very serious state of unemployment,, which... tho new Act should' to a great extent relieve, as under its provisions the" State will relieve local authorities ,of 40 per cent, of then* payments to able-bodied unemployed.

The problem of the derelict areas, however, is that their native industries are never likely to recover; there are no alternative industries, and the people are doomed to idleness: and poverty for the rest of their lives.

, One of the towns suffering in this way is Jarrow, whose 36,000 inhabitants formerly relied on the shipyards on the Tyne. There is silence in those shipyards, and there are skilled artisans, once workers in them, who have not held a tool against a piece of steel for six or seven years. There are, too, young men who have nereii handled a

tool at all—hundreds of them with nothing to do but loaf about. We find the same thing in South Wales, where whole villages ire beyond self-lielp; in Cumberland, and in parts of Fife and Lanark.

Local aid, whether official or voluntary, cannot relieve the physical and mental distress in these places, which have beeii described as being without a future. Only a boldly-planned national effort can /solve their problem, which requires large-scale planning and large-scale finance. ■ ■: It is impossible 19 remove whole populations, though many of the younger, members might be found opportunities elsewhere, so new industries will have to be established in these areas, uneconomic perhaps at first, but at least providing work to as to restore the morale of those who have set their hands to no tasks for years. It has been suggested,ihat the Government should send a director with a stafl: to each area, therelto plan new industries and to train, the workers to new occupations. . The deterioration of humanity has gone on far too long in these areas, and they havo become a blot on the nation as a whole. The nation cannot allow sections: io die away helplessly, and the Government must be forced to take special action and without delay.